Story Note: I recommend reading Chapter 30 "A Tale of Two Squads" first, as a brush up to this chapter. Enjoy.

Location: Edge of the National Mall, along 14th Ave, Washington D.C. 4:50 PM:

"Nothing on the west side Sarge."

Gamble peered over a car with his binoculars, scanning the tree sprinkled National Mall, but he couldn't see a single droid. Gamble Squad, Tens and his brothers had finally made it to the edge of the park. Their objective, to secure the edge and hold back any forward droid advances.

Only problem was, there were no droids.

"Solitaire, you have any clanker's in-scope?" Gamble asked, continuing to scan the park with his macro's.

10 stories up a building to their right, Solitaire was also scanning the park with his snipers scope. But even the veteran sniper couldn't tag a droid. He could clearly see the massive C-17799 transports nestled in the center of the park, towering over the trees, but still, not a single droid.

"Nothing Sarge," the sniper ground through comms, staring at his brothers in the street below him.

Looking up, Gamble nodded before turning to look back into the park raising his macro's again.

"Tens, I've got a really bad feeling about this," Right'eye stated, also looking into the empty expanse of trees and grass.

"Agreed," Tens answered back, "where are the droids? Commander Cody said this place was crawling with them…. hence the reason we're not supposed to step foot in it, but…" Tens gestured at the ships, "There's nothing except those tan behemoths…"

"Hey, maybe they all went home?" Riot chimed hopefully, "Decided this place just didn't suit their shiny fekking metallic needs… which means we can go home too, right?"

Ignoring his brother, Tens turned to Gamble, "What do you think Sergeant?"

Gamble sighed loudly and turned to Tens, "I think if you and Rights-its-face are going to keep yammering down the comm's, you should use a private channel. I don't like shinies who talk louder than I can think."

Riot chuckled, he liked it when he wasn't the one getting in trouble.

Rolling his eyes behind his bucket, Tens switched his channel to private, "Right-its-face? Really? What a fekking stuck-up piece of Aiwha bait. Whoever decided to make him Sergeant?"

"Probably the same people who threw a bunch of emotional disturbed psychopaths who all hate each other into a special op's squad and decided to name it 'Gamble'…" Right'eye stated matter of fact, "because that isn't a recipe for disaster."

Tens laughed, "I think I would've preferred it if Cody had paired us up with a squad of Gundark's. At least with Gundark's you know whose side their on."

"Yeah, whoever looks like dinner... Speaking of…" Right'eye waved an arm around, "doesn't look like will be going anywhere anytime soon while Sarge attempts to think… and I'm about as hungry as a Gundark… there's a nice looking piece of rubble over there that looks just perfect… so grab the two knuckle heads and the silent ghost. I still have a few ration cubes left for us."

5:01 PM:

It was rare, finding a few moments where they could sit quietly and eat, the four of them as it had been when they first arrived.

"How's your shoulder?" Right'eye asked Tens between scarfing down several ration cubes… the familiarity of the bland taste somewhat comforting for both troopers.

"Okay," Tens rotated his injured arm and shoulder, it was sore, but it wasn't a severe injury, "Nothing a little bit of Bacta won't fix once we get back to the Destroyers."

"You know," Right'eye glanced over to Riot and Jumps, who were deep in conversation, before looking back at Tens, "you should be dead."

Ten's quirked his eyebrows up between bites of white cube, "Mmm… what do you mean, vod?"

"I mean," Right'eye hushed, "No clone should have been able to dodge all of that flak. No clone could have survived that ambush. Tens, you should have a hundred blaster holes in you, thank manda you don't… I… I don't know what I'd do without you… but I think we both know why you were able to dodge all of those plasma bolts…"

Finally, the topic both of them had been evading for the longest time, had come up. Both were afraid of what the other thought about it.

"Fek Right'eye," Tens hissed, "not here… not right now!"

"It's ok vod, I…."

"I'm not like one of them," Tens interrupted, anxiously casting another glance towards Jumps and Riot.

"Tens?"

"I'm not like a fekking Jedi okay. It's just, it's just something that happens every now and then. It's nothing right?"

"Ten's don't worry about it," Right'eye stressed looking around. "No one else saw you levitate that cube when Julia pissed you off."

"You saw that?" Fear began to rise. Tens' ability to do things that defied logic had been troubling enough. If the Aiwha-bait found out…

"Yeah, I did," Right'eye whispered back, "You're lucky no one else noticed."

With trepidation, Tens looked directly at his brother, "I know…. I know Right'eye… I just don't know… what does it mean?"

"You're my brother, first and foremost," Right'eye quickly assured, "Force sensitive or not Tens that is what you are to me. Nothing, and I mean nothing will ever change that. Vode An, ner vod… always."

Tens visibly relaxed, but he was still tense as Right'eye continued.

"That's why I brought this up now. Whatever happens in the coming hours… I want you to know that no matter what, I've always got your back."

Tens smiled before grabbing his brother's arm in a traditional Mandoa handshake. No words were needed to express the bond of brotherhood they shared.

"What are you two getting all emotional about?" Trevor asked walking up to the four clones.

"Trevor!" Ten's jumped, caught off-guard by the Marine's sudden approach. After all, what he and Right'eye had been discussing was rather sensitive information. Information that would easily get him sent to Kamino for reconditioning, or worse, dissection and experimentation if the wrong brother or officer found out.

"Where the fek have you been?" Tens continued, "I tried finding you to ask if you'd like to eat with us, and Gamble hadn't seen you either."

Trevor, glancing at what the clones were eating, shook his head, "Well, thank god you didn't find me, not sure I could stomach your ration cubes anyways."

That wasn't the answer Tens was hoping for, as he placed his helmet back on, but it was clear Trevor wasn't going to say we're he'd been.

"To be fair," Right'eye stated, "It helps if you're raised on them."

Trevor shook his head, "Yeah, well remind me to treat you all to a proper American meal after all of this is over. Anyways, came over to let you guys know that Sergeant Grumble wants everyone to report in ASAP."

Riot perked up, snickering a bit, "What… what did you call him?"

Trevor looked around to make sure the Sergeant was out of earshot, "Sergeant Grumble… I feel it fits him better than Gamble, because the guy's been complaining about us ever since we got paired with his fucking team."

Everyone started chuckling at that, "I like the way you think, Trevor," Tens nodded, patting a hand on the Marine's shoulder, "Now come on, evidently Grumble has new orders for us."

A minute later, everyone except Solitaire was assembled in front of the Sergeant.

"Alright, everyone listen up," the Sergeant shouted, "I've tried raising the Commander and General, but it appears our comm's are being jammed…"

Ten's nudged his brother, "as if that wasn't blatantly obvious…"

"Without direct communication with the general," Gamble continued, "I cannot receive mission updates. With no updates, I think it's best if we stick to our original orders, which means staying where we are currently until further instructions, while making sure no more droids leave the park and make their way into the city."

Right'eye rolled his eyes behind his bucket, he didn't like the notion of inaction, not when so much didn't add up.

"Sir," Right'eye spoke up, "With all due respect, what if the others are under attack? What if they need our help? That would explain why there are no droids…. and we can't just sit here waiting for orders when we don't even have the ability to receive them!"

Gamble glared at Right'eye, "Well, what bright idea have you come up with then shiny? The way I see it, if we do anything besides what Commander Cody told us to do, then we'd be directly disobeying orders."

Right'eye had a plan… he'd been thinking about it for some time, but he wasn't sure if his brothers would approve of it, least of all the Sergeant.

"What if we took out the transports ourselves?"

There, Right'eye had said it.

"What?!" came the exclamation of surprise, not from Gamble, but from Tens, "Those transports are massive Right'eye! We do not have the firepower necessary to take them out! Not to mention trying to approach them without being spotted and shot!"

Gamble looked at Tens, before turning to Right'eye, "For once I happen to agree with Tens, taking out those transports by ourselves is suicide."

Right'eye shook his head, "Not necessarily. Our scanners show no droids for at least 100 meters in any direction…"

"Right'eye," Ten's interrupted, "that's because our scanners are being jammed."

"No," Right'eye continued, knowing he could win over his brother, "we can visually see at least 100 meters into the park, and there are no droids to be seen. Solitaire can't see any either, which either means B1's suddenly became experts at hiding themselves…. or the droids are congregating elsewhere. I bet you the majority of the droids are preparing to attack our main force near the White House. That's why the droids are jamming our comm's…. so we can't let Cody and General Kenobi know that the droids have moved."

"Right'eye," Tens shook his head, "if what you're saying is true… that the droids are preparing to attack our main force… then shouldn't we try warning them?"

"We can't," Gamble interjected, "with comm's down, it would take too long to send someone over to warn them in person."

"Exactly!" Right'eye pointed towards the transports, "If the droids are distracted by General Kenobi's men, then why not sneak over to the transports and destroy them while the droids are busy? If I remember correctly, the droids are controlled through comm relays in the transport ships… and the jamming signals are most likely are coming from the transports too, so if we take out the ships, we take out the droid army!"

Sergeant Gamble folded his arms, "Not necessarily. The droids would only shut down momentarily… a few minutes at most before they would reboot."

Arms folded, thinking, Tens decided to help his brother out, though he still had doubts about his plan, "A few minutes is the difference between winning and losing Sergeant. If destroying the transports destroys the jammers, then we can contact everyone else and tell them to destroy as many of the droids as possible before they reboot."

Gamble folded his arms, looking unimpressed, "And how do you suppose we destroy these ships? As you pointed out earlier Tens, we don't have the firepower."

Tens couldn't answer, instead he looked to Right'eye… "Well ner vod?"

Walking over to Spades, Right'eye hoisted his rocket launcher from the ground, "All it would take is a couple of well-placed rockets… which we have. Fire them into the engine manifolds and the entire transport should blow up… or at the very least be grounded."

"But the engines are shielded, aren't they?" Blackjack asked, joining the conversation…

"Yes, normally they are. If I remember my basic training correctly…. the transports have two layers of shields. An outer layer that protects the entire ship, and an inner layer protecting the engines. When moving through the atmosphere both shields are active…. But when they land, and shut down the engines, only the outer shields remain active."

"So what?" Spades interjected, "They're still shielded, and still impossible to destroy."

"Actually," Right'eye smiled, "there's about 10 meters of space between the transport and its outer shield. So if we get within that space, inside the outer shield, then we can send a couple of well-aimed rockets into the engines and boom! No more transport ships."

Gamble made a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat, "Yes, but we still don't know how many droids there are between us and those transports. Even if most of the droids are elsewhere preparing to attack… they wouldn't leave their transports completely unguarded."

Ten's frowned behind his helmet…. He thought Right'eye's plan was crazy at first… but now he was starting to see how the plan could actually work…

"What about surveillance drones? Doesn't your squad have some?" Ten's asked, deciding his brother's plan was the best option available to them.

Sergeant Gamble nodded, "Yes, we do have them… but the Holo-vids have a very limited range…"

"So, we use them to extend our own visual range. That's all we need," Right'eye finished, hoping everybody would agree.

Everyone looked to the transports, as if deciding whether it was a good idea or not…

"I'd feel more comfortable with the mission if the rest of my Squad was here," Trevor stated matter of fact, he had no illusions the potential costs and benefits of the proposed mission Right'eye had.

"Lucky for you," a new voice interrupted, causing everyone to swivel around, "we've turned up then," Aaron said cheerfully, with Julia and a very intimidating Tye standing next to him.

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A/N: Sigh…. Yes, I know, I've taken a few eons to post an update… an apology is the least I can do….

But first… I'd like to thank Ms CT-782 for her fantastic job editing this chapter….

I'd also like to thank Panda and some of my other faithful readers for their beautifully clear "get your fekking shabla arse in gear and post something" reviews. I got your message, loud and clear.

So I do apologize…. I really do. Whether it was lack of motivation, my summer job, or now, my College classes, I just had a hard time writing anything. Tens is rather pissed too, after all, this is his story.

The words of Kylo Ren echo in my mind, "Nothing will stand in our way… I will finish what you started…" yes, I must finish what I started…. And not even college, or jobs… or laziness will stand in my way… (I hope…).

As such, I'll endeavor to do a better job starting today. The story has been outlined, I just have to fill in the outline with chapters…

So, hope you enjoyed this chapter… we're back with Tens and co, and will stay that way for the next few chapters, which will be more exciting than this one, I promise. So please leave a review, especially if you're pissed at how long I've taken to post something… I really do want to hear from you (hate mail is welcomed for a change… : )

Thanks, and may the force be with you,

-Sly